Woman delivers 3 sets of twins in 26 months

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KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Over the past 26 months, there's been joy, sadness and surprise for a Kansas City, Kan., woman. She has delivered three sets of twins in that short time.

It's obvious that Danesha Couch has her hands full when you see her with 2-year-old Danarius and 1-year-olds Delilah and Davina.

"Three babies walking within a couple of months," Couch said.

Then you see that she really has her hands full.

She's holding Dalanie and Darla, who were born last month and just came home after three weeks in neonatal intensive care. They're Couch's third set of twins and her second with her fiance.

"People just consider me a freak of nature when I tell them," Couch said.

With no fertility treatment, she had three sets. Her oldest, Danarius, is a twin too. His brother, Desmond, died shortly after birth from complications of prematurity.

"That was a pretty bad time," Couch said.

She thought it was a fluke when she had twins a second time. Why did she become pregnant a third time?

"I love babies," she said.

What are the odds of having three sets? According to one report from Britain, it's 1 in 88,000.

"The fact that you've ever done it before makes you more likely to do it again," said Dr. Elizabeth Wickstrom of the Shawnee Mission Medical Center.

Wickstrom said that's true with fraternal twins but not identical. She added that women of African descent are more likely to have multiple multiples.

"I release more than one egg at a time," Couch said.

"So you have two eggs simultaneously coming down the tubes getting ready to be fertilized," Wickstrom said.

"My regrets would be timing, but I'm really happy that I can even create babies or have life because some women can't do that," Couch added.

The 20-year-old doesn't mind the piles of laundry and the sleepless nights. But she and her fiance are not planning to have any more children -- more twins -- for at least 10 years. Couch and Jeffrey Pressler plan to marry in September.